- Two omnidirectional microphones
- MP3 or WAV recording, up to 48kHz/24-bit
- Built-in speaker
- Slow down playback without changing the pitch for transcription
- Noise reduction, voice enhance, low cut and high cut effects
Pros:
The recording quality is very good
The price/features ratio was very good at $33 but not so sure at $70
Cons:
Feels incredibly cheap. Plastic is that thin hard stuff. It has no substantial heft. The battery door will slip off if you touch it.
Battery life unacceptable.
The battery lasted 1 1/2 lectures and I missed the second half. Going straight back to Amazon.
Buy TASCAM VR-10 Portable Digital Recorder Now
I have TASCAM DR-05BL but this VR-10 is smaller and thinner than TASCAM's. Sound quality is nice. Built in stereo microphones are sensitive. You may need external stereo microphones when you walk while you have this.Read Best Reviews of TASCAM VR-10 Portable Digital Recorder Here
I bought this from Amazon at a very favorable price it can record LPCM at up to 24bit 48kHz which is better than CD quality (16bit 44.1kHz).First live music recording was very good in parts, but I also got horrible distortion this was because the AGC/ALC (auto record level control) could not handle the loud volumes even when set to low sensitivity.
So learned to use manual level control and most of the time the record levels were down in 0-3 right at the bottom distortion problem solved.
The first one I got had problems of freezing/locking up if buttons were pressed during recording. This may not seem much of a problem but the VR-10 is supposed to be able to manually create a new file during recording at any time by pressing the REC key during recording create a new file and continue recording. This is very useful for recording each song to a separate file without stopping and restarting the recording. BUT doing these eventually will make the recorder freeze up and the only recourse is to pull out the battery.
[NOTE: I said earlier that adjusting the Rec Level would freeze the VR-10, this does NOT appear to be so, I have done further tests and the recorder seems to be OK adjusting the levels using the |>| keys during recording the VR-10 did not lock-up during my tests]
Amazon were very good about the return and replacement of the recorder.
However the replacement I got had a much older version of the firmware, and still had the same freezing problem.
Teac USA (= Tascam) website lists the VR-10 as discontinued and did NOT have any supporting downloads. Contacting customer service gets only an auto e-mail acknowledgment with ref code (3PEC0QA2) but NO actual response, or help so could not get latest firmware.
Teac EU has downloads for manuals, but no firmware.
Teac.co.jp the Japanese site did have the firmware (), but there were two versions and release notes in Japanese only so I could not figure out which firmware to use, and more to the point how to do the firmware update. Flashing firmware updates is too critical to be done by guesswork, as it can render the recorder totally inoperable.
I wrote Teac.co.jp (in English) to ask about the firmware update they did respond within 24 hours and the e-mail parts in English did point out which firmware to use (vr-10-40_103.zip, and NOT version with the "e" suffix that is not for "English", but for a different model in Japan, that actually has the "e" designation) but no instructions, or location of release Notes and instructions in English.
However I figured out 3 current Tascam models (DR-03, PR-10, DR-08) were based on the Teac VR-10/VR-20 series, and the Tascam DR-08 had a firmware update, and pdf release notes/instructions.
No intention of using DR-08 firmware but DR-08 release notes/instructions gave the changes/fixes and instructions on how to do the update I cross-checked with the actual Japanese version of the pdf VR-10 release notes/instructions by manually copying each paragraph and running the Japanese characters through google translate to know with pretty good confidence that the notes/instruction were basically the same.
So I was able to do the firmware update successfully.
BUT guess what?
the recorder even on the latest firmware, that may have addressed this issue -
still Freezes eventually, if the Rec button is pressed during recording.
Still, because of the very good sound quality (matches the Tascam DR-07MkII at 24bit 48k) and very small and handy form factor I have decided to keep it, despite the fatal flaw as I will just record straight through, and do the file splitting post inconvenient but I can just about live with it to gain this very neat small recorder, at a great price, that records very good sound quality.
EDIT to ADD -
I have done battery life tests using an 8GB microSDHC card for enough room and recording at 24bit 48kHz I got about 5hrours 20mins average from fully charged eneloop AAA so to me the battery life is adequate/acceptable.
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It's TEAC and not TASCAM specifically but no matter. It records in PCM and shows as .WMV on the computer. This is just fine. .WMV is a package of PCM. It does MP3 too. I use it with a lapel mic from Radio Shack and it's great. I wish when using a audio-in lapel that it would have the option to split the mono into stereo. Instead, you just get a L or R channel when loaded into an audio editing or video editing program. Then the single track needs to be "panned" to be "stereo". An extra step but not a big deal. Great unit. I'm super happy. A much better deal than the Zoom H2, etc.Save 60% Off
Good for line input recording good A/D converter. Use for backup recorder on classical orchestra concerts, using line in (48K, 16bit). I wouldn't use mics on any recorder, unless for voice, about 12-24" away.Screen is hard to read. Wish it had larger battery life perhaps I will use lithiums, if I don't use USB power. Might need a windscreen if I use for interviews.
I usually transfer audio files from the micro SD card separately from another card input device.
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